By: Two weeks off didn’t seem to be a problem for the Lady Blues, who defeated Fontbonne by scores of 8-1 and 5-2 on Friday afternoon.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – After going two weeks without a game due to weather, the Illinois College softball team finally returned to the field on Friday afternoon and showed little sign of rust in defeating Fontbonne University, 8-1 and 5-2, in a doubleheader played at Lenz Field. The two wins improve the Lady Blues to 8-6 on the season.
Following these two games across town, the Lady Blues hope to play two at their home stadium. IC and Millikin University are scheduled to play a doubleheader at Jessica Kamp Field on April 3 starting at 3 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 8, Fontbonne 1
The brisk temperatures matched the pace of play as Illinois College quickly defeated Fontbonne in the first game of the day.
Mariah Hedges went the distance for the Lady Blues to move to 4-3 on the year.
Lea Hall blasted a solo home run in the second inning and added a two-run double in the third inning. The 3-0 lead increased to 5-0 on a two-run homer from
Savanna Brady before the third inning came to a close.
Fontbonne pulled one run back in the top of the fourth, but IC tacked on two more in the fourth and one in the fifth.
Sam Seggerman took advantage of a Fontbonne error to make it all the way to third base, scoring
Jessica Belzer, then was brought home on a
Megan Spain sacrifice fly. Brady added another RBI in the bottom of the fifth to plate
Maddy Morgan.
Jackie Reilly, Hall, Brady and
Mikayla Greenwood all had two hits apiece for the Lady Blues in the game. Hall and Brady ended with three RBIs each.
Game Two: Illinois College 5, Fontbonne 2
The second game was more of a struggle as the Lady Blues didn't manage a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning. Single runs by the Griffins in the top of the fourth and the top of the fifth made it a 2-0 game, but with two down in the bottom of the fifth, Illinois College produced a five-run rally that would give the Lady Blues all the cushion they would need to come away with the victory.
The Lady Blues had baserunners in each of the first four innings, but it took a
Ryleigh Keith single in the bottom of the fourth to end Diamond Thomas' no-hit bid. In the fifth, the Lady Blues got to work. Seggerman and Reilly were aboard with two down when Brady knocked a single back up the middle to tie the game at 2-2.
Frankie Sikora then drove Brady home with the go-ahead run on a triple down the left field line.
The Illinois College offense wasn't done yet. The next batter,
Christin Mathias, hit a double to right field to score Sikora. Keith then delivered a single over the head of the second baseman to bring Mathias in for a 5-2 lead.
Fontbonne was able to bring the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh with one out, but Mathias fielded a grounder at first and went to the bag unassisted for the second out before
Elyce Trout corralled a sharply-hit line drive for the final out of the game.
Jess Feig worked IC's second complete game of the day, upping her record to 3-2 this season.
